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Contact electrification-induced personal sanitation

Adequate sanitation is crucial for public health, particularly in off-grid areas. Electrostatic charges generated through human motion via contact electrification could potentially offer sanitation without requiring stable electrical or chemical supplies.

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Fig. 1: Contact electrification-induced microbial disinfection for power-free and on-the-go sanitation.

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (grant no. 2022YFC3205400, to Z.-Y.H.), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no. 52200079, to Z.-Y.H.) and the Basic Science Research Program (2022R1A3B1078291, RS-2024-00360894, 2020R1A5A1019131) through National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grants funded by the Korean government (MSIT).

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Correspondence to Sang-Woo Kim.

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Huo, ZY., Kim, YJ. & Kim, SW. Contact electrification-induced personal sanitation. Nat. Rev. Clean Technol. 1, 673–674 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44359-025-00100-x

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